BookLife Talks with John Michael Bolger

Actor Bolger’s debut, Stoop to Conquer, received an Editor’s Pick, with BookLife praising the author for his “ability to blend poignant moments with gritty realism… Doonan’s journey… will hook readers from the onslaught—and leave them contemplative.” We spoke with Bolger about his life and the experiences that led to the book’s formation.

 

 

I always knew that I was going to be an actor, always knew that I was going to be a writer. But when I was seven years old, everything changed with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Innocence went out the window, and I became aware that something was different. In 1968, when I was twelve, it all came undone with the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Vietnam War, Nixon, the whole thing. 

 

So, I just checked out. Sex, drugs, booze, rock and roll, wild child—I just wanted to go out and explore life to its fullest. I knew that someday I would use all of it. It was like putting books up on a shelf to reference in the future, but I wasn't sure that the material was going to be for a book. 

 

 

Absolutely. I ended up on a show called NYPD Blue. While on the show, the creator, David Milch, said to me, “Bolger, if you can write the way you talk, I encourage you to start writing.” The next day, I gave him the first 15 pages of Stoop to Conquer, and he couldn't believe it. I said, “You told me to write.” He answered, “And you took me seriously?”

 

I became a member of the Actors Studio and ended up having a very interesting tête-à-tête with Norman Mailer. Nobody could believe that a young upstart was arguing with Norman Mailer. But he loved it, and he said, “You're the only one who doesn't kiss my ass. Everyone agrees with everything I say, and half of what I'm saying I know is bullshit.” He asked if I wrote and said, “Well, I'm gonna give you a tip. Write what you know, kid, because you know something.” I’ve felt very blessed on my journey to have Norman Mailer and David Milch sort of give me permission, or an attaboy.

 

 

I thought, how do I use the greatest landscape in the world? And how do I take my pain, travails, and loneliness, all the stuff I've gone through, that I've had to work through, all the times I was near death, and use it? How do I memorialize my friends who didn't make it? That's when the library I spoke of earlier, where I store the books of all my experiences, appeared again, and the words just flowed like a river.

 

 

I look at the poor kids and parents who were isolated, locked down, put behind masks, and bullied, who contemplated suicide and experienced desolation, drug use, peer pressure, identity crises, and I went, “Oh my God. It's 1968 all over again.” We've had an assassination attempt, the world is upside-down, and everybody's going back and forth trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Just like me, some kids missed years of their lives and are going through exactly what my protagonist is going through. History repeats itself. My book is relevant right now because these kids don't know who they are, and they're trying to find themselves. 

 

 

I'm working on a book called Lady Blue, and it's been an idea that I've had in my heart, in my mind, in my soul, since I was a little boy. But I've learned now that I'm not going to force myself to write. I'm going to wait until the siren sounds, till the clarion blows and the river fl